http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/11/obamas_first_transition_meetin.html
According to the Wall Street Journal, Barack Obama launched his presidential transition with a series of meetings at Ariel Investments.
“Obama spent much of Wednesday huddled in the offices of Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based mutual fund company headed by friend John W. Rogers Jr.”
Ariel Investments is a Chicago-based investment management firm that has a “Below Average” performance rating according to Morningstar. As an African-American-owned firm, it has benefitted from city and state government and union pension funds who are under a mandate (whether official or not) to boost investments with minority-owned firms. Of course, the pensioners dependent on the performance on these investments have not shared the benefits.
Connect the dots ...
George Lucas ... GF Mellody Hobson ... Ariel Investments ... John Rodgers ... Obama ...(Rezko???)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2149884/posts
John Rogers may play into the ongoing investigation of Gov. Blagoyevich and President-elect Obama’s ties to convicted political fixer Tony Rezko.
Rogers founded a minority investment business, Ariel Capital. Federal prosecutors looking into the various pay-to-play schemes in the Blagoyevich administration may be looking at the role campaign contributions played in the investment portfolio Ariel was awarded by the Illinois Teachers Retirement System.
Obama, as a state senator, lobbied the pension board overseeing investments to award more contracts to black-owned businesses and, specifically, Ariel.
In turn, Rogers contributions (amount to) tens of thousands of dollars to Obama and Blagoyevich.
Investments with Ariel were later dropped after the federal investigation of pay-to-play in the Illinois state government became public.
Typical MBE - rewards just a few insiders by skin color, while providing cover for additional thefts.